The present invention relates to a high speed nutcracking apparatus having provision for effectively separating shell fragments from uncracked whole nuts, and which serves to recycle the uncracked whole nuts back into the apparatus while maintaining the nuts in a clean and sterile condition.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,332,827; 5,623,867; 6,205,915; 6,270,824; 6,584,890, 6,588,328; and 6,772,680 all disclose a high speed nutcracking apparatus which includes a rotatable turret which mounts a plurality of cracking units arranged about is periphery, with each cracking unit having an opening adapted to receive an individual nut from a feed conveyor which comprises a plurality of nut transport elements mounted in succession on a feed chain. Each of the nut transport elements includes an upwardly open traverse receptacle for holding an individual nut, and each cracking unit on the turret has an anvil which is moved axially into the receptacle at a pick up point so that the nut is engaged between the anvil and a crack die on the other side of the opening.
In operation, the feed conveyor moves tangentially past the rotating turret so that the anvils of the cracking units enter the receptacles of respective nut transport elements at the pick up point and engage and pick up the nut. After the cracking unit and engaged nut have moved away from the pick up point and reach a cracking location, the crack die of the cracking unit is impacted by a shuttle so that the crack die applies an impact to the nut to crack the shell.
To facilitate the cracking operation, and to sanitize the nuts, the nuts are typically soaked in hot water prior to the cracking operation. However, maintenance of the sanitized conditions has not always been achieved, by reason of two factors. First is the fact that contamination of the nuts can occur through contact with the oil used in the lubrication system of the machine. This problem has been effectively alleviated by the sealed lubrication system described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,772,680.
The second factor which has contributed to the loss of sanitized conditions is the fact that the machine operators are often lax in assuring proper procedures are maintained during the operation of the machine. In particular, the machines will inherently mis-feed a small number of nuts prior to reaching the pick up point on the turret, and a few nuts will be dropped by the turret prior to being cracked, and these uncracked whole nuts fall to the ground, where they may come in contact with oil or other contaminants. The machine operators are instructed to return the nuts to the sanitizing water bath, but they will often simply shovel the contaminated nuts back into the feed hopper.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a nutcracking apparatus of the described type which is capable of separating the uncracked whole nuts from shell fragments generated during the cracking operation, and returning the separated whole nuts to the feed hopper while assuring that they are maintained in a clean and sterile condition.